Neighboring Belhaven has announced that “Belhaven Town Center” should begin construction this fall.

The mixed-use development, to be built in phases, will occupy a three and a half acre site between Jefferson and North streets and Carlisle and Poplar streets.

David Turner Companies principal David Turner, whose portfolio includes Lost Rabbit in Madison and honors from the Mississippi Heritage Trust for historic preservation, made the presentation to about three dozen Belhavenites on Monday at The Manship.

Phase one’s spring 2019 pre-launch includes the rehabilitation of one existing structure and the rebuild of another on that current structure’s same foundation.

Housed in those buildings will be Campbell’s Craft Donuts, owned by Campbell’s Bakery’s Mitchell Moore, serving pastries and co-branded with locally roasted Bean Fruit Coffee; Puckett-based Patrick’s Produce with seasonal vegetables, homemade jams and flowers; an outdoor deck for food trucks to belly up on special nights and weekends; and a co-working office space.

“It’s been a long road to get here,” Turner says of the vision casting that began with current landowner Baptist Hospital in 2012. “Belhaven has rooftops, a university… a theatre. These two blocks are the right place for this to happen.”

The project, totalling 117,000 square feet and built in four phases, will put this property back on the tax rolls. Belhaven Town Center includes 30,000 square feet of offices, 27,000 square feet of urban retail, 60,000 square feet of mixed residential and 293 parking spaces. According to Turner, phasing allows for “flexibility of design” and a “chance for the market to speak to us.” The final phase is set for completion in fall 2021.

The next step in the process is an appearance before the City of Jackson’s planning board on August 22 to rezone a small parcel of land from R4 to CMU-1, a designation that accommodates the development of residential uses along with compatible, low-intensity commercial uses to serve adjacent residential areas. If approved by the planning board, the measure will go before the City of Jackson Council in early September.

Turner, who said he has secured financing for the pre-launch phase, added, “I hope to have a bulldozer (on the site) by the end of September.”

Campbell’s Bakery’s Mitchell Moore said he is chomping at the bit to bring his donut concept to Belhaven. “I am 110 percent committed (to the project),” he told. “I have been in the middle of development of recipes and the concept for almost a year.”

Greater Belhaven Foundation board president Susan Garrard noted from her group a stance of “unanimous support” and an excitement about the project.

Reed Hogan, president of the Belhaven Improvement Association, calls the development “a unique opportunity to retrofit the town center into existing infrastructure.”

“I want this to be the most desirable neighborhood to live in and raise families,” Hogan said. “I hope twenty years from now, people will come to the Belhaven Town Center and they’ll see it and they’ll just assume this is where it all started.”